Ancient Echoes

The strength of the story is in the individual scenes. Each scene by itself is intriguing and enjoyable. The author's interest in historic detail, both for Ice Age scenes and later eras, comes through clearly. Episodes in the protagonist's life are detailed with great care, including extensive descriptions of visits into other worlds, and the mysterious entity who threatens him and his family.

The weakness is that the story never seems to have any direction. We're not given any sort of inkling into the purpose behind it all until the last few pages, which is a distraction from the story. You tend to be so caught up in wondering what the point is that you lose sight of how well written the individual scenes are. It's a lot to ask to get show more through 400 pages of dense language with the sense that the story is spinning its wheels.

The strength and weakness balance themselves out into a pretty average book. show less

One of my favourite authors. It's good, but it's a long way short of his best. Bit clunkily written in places, but it does have his knack of imagining really convincing people from the olden days.

A really interesting concept, blending fantasy, mythology and science fiction. I found myself fascinated by how the author deployed his dreamscapes and archetypes, and I felt that the image of the city hunting through time and space was a very potent one. However, the story had lost steam well before the end, and the protagonist himself always felt thinly characterised to me.

One of my favourite authors. It's good, but it's a long way short of his best. Bit clunkily written in places, but it does have his knack of imagining really convincing people from the olden days.

How many Glanums are there?' he asked.
'As many as you can find,' Garth answered darkly. 'Glanum has left its shadow across the world, and it has been doing so for longer than you can imagine.'

An odd story, whose incomprehensible premise involves mythical figures generated within a boy's mind (I think?) and the strange behaviour of the ancient city of Glanum. I couldn't make head nor tail of it and the rushed ending didn't make things any clearer.

Robert Holdstock est un conteur qui nous vient des douces vallées de l’Angleterre. Sa terre semble toujours liée d’une manière ou d’une autre à ses écrits, et il nous communique à travers eux ce qui le fascine chez elle.
La chair et l’ombre, c’est l’histoire d’un jeune garçon qui rêve un peu trop fort. Jack Chatwin rêve de Visage Gris et Visage Vert, un couple apparemment venu tout droit des origines de la Terre qui fuit dans un monde lointain un taureau gigantesque qui les pourchasse. Jack va rencontrer un archéologue nommé John Garth, qui lui est à la recherche d’une cité mythique qui semble se déplacer sous la surface du globe. Jack va devoir partir à la recherche et à la rencontre de ce couple qui le show more hante, et découvrir les mystères de cette cité apparemment elle aussi à la recherche de quelque chose ou de quelqu’un.
Bon roman d’aventures et de fantastique, La Chair et l’Ombre mêle avec du brio et un peu de bricolage psychanalytique le rêve et la réalité. Jack est perdu entre les deux et essaye de récupérer la vie… dont il a toujours rêvé. Il s’agit d’une sorte d’Indiana Jones avec un soupçon d’Horreur qui fonctionne assez bien. Si l’histoire devient quelque peut confuse à certains passage du roman, l’auteur parvient assez bien à maintenir le cap et donne assez de vitamines au scénario pour tenir le lecteur en haleine jusqu’au bout. Robert Holdstock décrit avec beaucoup d’attention et de saveur ses personnages les plus énigmatiques et véhicule bien au lecteur les émotions que ceux-ci ressentent. Bref, un bouquin bien ficelé qui plaira aux amateurs de chasses aux trésors et de cités disparues, et qui sauront se laisser bercer dans la douce folie de l’histoire. show less